Gaza, US universities and the reproduction of power
Ahmed Moor | 24 December 2023 | Al Jajeera
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill testifies before a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing in Washington, DC on December 5, 2023 [Ken Cedeno/Reuters]
On the morning of December 10, I awoke to two messages. The first was from my father. He was asking me to write to the US Department of State to request the evacuation of my uncle and his family from Rafah, in southern Gaza, where they are “without any food, shelter or water and very terrified from the bombing all the time”. My aunt, my uncle’s wife, was killed by the Israelis in Gaza in 2014. Now, he and his children face the real possibility of joining her in death.
The second was an email from a friend in a senior leadership role at one of the large, multilateral organisations. We attended the University of Pennsylvania together and she was dismayed by the capitulation of its current president, Liz Magill, to the right wing. But she felt, justifiably, that she was unable to speak out because of the oppressive environment at work, and in America in general.